[Rickettsioses. A disease of tourism].

Clinical diagnosis of rickettsial diseases, which are acute infections of variable severity, cannot be done without knowledge of the epidemiologic background. It must be confirmed subsequently by indirect immunofluorescence, which is the choice serologic test. Among the 225 cases of rickettsial disease confirmed between 1980 and 1982, 118 cases of mediterranean spotted fever were acquired in the south of France during the summer. The other cases of spotted fever and all the cases of murine, louse-borne and scrub typhus occurred in tourists who had recently come back from countries where rickettsial morbidity still persists.